The announcements, trailers, and gameplay footage of the old republic have sparked an interest in me that i havvent had in an mmo before. This genre has never really appealed to me and until now, i havent looked into any mmo's at all. But looking at the old republic has made me realize, do i really want to pay infinity dollars for a game? i have seen arguments on this topic before, and recongnize the neeed for mmo teams to charge in order to keep their servers running. but i cannot see the logic in literally paying an infinite sum of money for one game. To me in game microtransactions seem a good alternative, they allow users to play without paying but still provide a source of income for the servers to run on. does anyone have any other ideas for good alternatives to a monthly rate?
Alternatives to the MMO monthly rate?
- Thread starter skwirly715
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I don't think I would mind if they gave me the option of buying hours. The problem with a monthly fee for me is I don't know if I'll have time to play it each month to make paying the monthly fee worth it.
If they told me I could buy a hundred hours for a set amount of money, hours that wouldn't expire, I would probably do that.
If they told me I could buy a hundred hours for a set amount of money, hours that wouldn't expire, I would probably do that.
Thats basically what the microtransactions are, i think d&d online do this. you buy the game but pay for premium experiences areas and items
and thats a good idea meganmeave. i wish there was a way to do away with extra charges entireley. for example i could deal with advertisements as an alternative. its better than paying over and over, and the revenue could keep the servers running
MMO companys need to start offering monthly and hourly subscriptions, if they did I bet they'd make a ton more money.
Hourly subscription is you paying for an lets say 10 hours of time and getting to play for the full 10 hours with whenever you log off the timer stops ticking down till you log back on.
Hourly subscription is you paying for an lets say 10 hours of time and getting to play for the full 10 hours with whenever you log off the timer stops ticking down till you log back on.
even so infinite dollars is a lot of money.im just tryin to think of some better ways to go about funding all the things they need
dungeons and dragon online is a perfect example of a good mmo. its a FREE game but some quests are premium that need to be bought , the game has micro transactions but there are no balance breaking items such as overpowered weapons or armor. the more quests you do as a free player you also earn turbine points ie the cash for the online shop which you can spend on these premium quests or extra features if you wanted too. and to top it off there are 3 account types the free 2 play has limited features and a handful of quests, the premium which gives access to all the features but you need to buy the extra quests and the VIP subscription type which offers every thing in the game but for a monthly fee. now the f2p account is a great thing in on itself ..its free and shows you every thing the game offers, the premium is a status applied once you buy turbine points (cash) with real money but you only need to buy some once and you have premium forever which unlocks many features. this is a very good balance in types so players can either play for free to an extent , buy some points and unlock the game or pay for a monthly fee and get access to every thing.
^that is why i love DDO great game with best kind of access no hassle on any ones end.
^that is why i love DDO great game with best kind of access no hassle on any ones end.
Free to Play MMO's usually fail (cash items -_-) and i don't like to pay every month for a Pay to Play MMO
...
that's why Guild Wars (and soon; GW2
) is the only MMO i like.
...
that's why Guild Wars (and soon; GW2
) is the only MMO i like.
Guild Wars 2 is going to be free to play... and with what's going on with the game... paying for labor or not, if ArenaNet can pull it off without asking for monthly payments, I really don't think other companies can excuse monthly payments. But that's me.
I'm willing to pay lifetime, since that equates to a year and I play for that long - sometimes longer - regardless. I don't like the burden of monthly payments, I get why they're doing it -- asking for entrance fee to their servers so they can pay their employees for the continuous work, but that doesn't mean I have to like it. I will abide by it though, as the reasons are... well... reasonable. At least until ArenaNet can prove otherwise.
As for alternatives? It depends on what the costs of upkeep are... item shops seem to work fine for most free MMOs, but I have no idea if the costs are equal to the "pay to plays". If they are, it works for them and they don't have their parent company making even more money elsewhere for them... I suppose I'd be up for that -- providing certain restrictions are placed. Otherwise I'm up for what this quote says...
I'm willing to pay lifetime, since that equates to a year and I play for that long - sometimes longer - regardless. I don't like the burden of monthly payments, I get why they're doing it -- asking for entrance fee to their servers so they can pay their employees for the continuous work, but that doesn't mean I have to like it. I will abide by it though, as the reasons are... well... reasonable. At least until ArenaNet can prove otherwise.
As for alternatives? It depends on what the costs of upkeep are... item shops seem to work fine for most free MMOs, but I have no idea if the costs are equal to the "pay to plays". If they are, it works for them and they don't have their parent company making even more money elsewhere for them... I suppose I'd be up for that -- providing certain restrictions are placed. Otherwise I'm up for what this quote says...
That's what APB is doing. Although I don't know if that's the game you're looking for.meganmeave said:
Advertising ingame would be a good way to counteract it.
Think about it; Billboards on Planets with all sorts of adverts for Pepsi and whatnot.
But in all reality; MMO's need some way to keep their servers running, release free updates, etc. So I would say either hope they adopt an add campaign, or decide if the game is worth x ammount of money each month.
Think about it; Billboards on Planets with all sorts of adverts for Pepsi and whatnot.
But in all reality; MMO's need some way to keep their servers running, release free updates, etc. So I would say either hope they adopt an add campaign, or decide if the game is worth x ammount of money each month.
You're not paying an infinite amount of money, you're just paying for it until you get bored.skwirly715 said:
It's needed because on the larger MMO's it costs a crapload to maintain that many servers while continuously offering customer support, fixing bugs and changing/adding in-game content.
Smaller MMO's can get away with being free and just have a few micro-transactions but you can understand how it starts costing a ridiculous amount
Not sure how it's working with Guild Wars though. They seem to bring out a new MMO or expansion pack every day, maybe that's their version of subscriptions ;D
That's the thing though, Guild Wars 2 will play like an MMO. They're designing it to be open world and not at all like how they had the original Guild Wars.Xzi said:
I could go on explaining... but I'm a bit biased when it comes to it since I liked the original. So I'm going to do the lazy thing and link you to the main website so you can see what they're planning.
http://www.guildwars2.com/en/
There is one idea mentioned several times in this thread which I must definitely agree with, and that's paying for a set amount of hours that will only expire once you've played for that allotted amount of time. I never liked the idea that a player could pay for three months game-time of a game, but all of a sudden, their interest drops off after the first month, they stop playing, and are unable to reclaim their money for the two months they didn't play.
I understand that it's all in the official terms and conditions and whatnot, but it is a flawed system. So while I can see that there may be minor flaws in a pay-per-hour system, it would be leagues ahead of current subscription or pre-paid systems.
I've never been on a contract-based mobile phone plan myself, so I'm not sure entirely how it works, but my interpretation - which is likely horribly wrong - is that the person on the contract is charged based on how much call time they use - among various other features but that's irrelevant. Perhaps a similar system could be used for an MMO game?
Also; microtransactions suck. Even though, yes, it is a viable way to make money and maintain services, I just feel it's not a very honest one. Can't really say why. Compare it to other particular games where the developer charges you money for 'keys' to unlock content that's already on the bloody disc.
I understand that it's all in the official terms and conditions and whatnot, but it is a flawed system. So while I can see that there may be minor flaws in a pay-per-hour system, it would be leagues ahead of current subscription or pre-paid systems.
I've never been on a contract-based mobile phone plan myself, so I'm not sure entirely how it works, but my interpretation - which is likely horribly wrong - is that the person on the contract is charged based on how much call time they use - among various other features but that's irrelevant. Perhaps a similar system could be used for an MMO game?
Also; microtransactions suck. Even though, yes, it is a viable way to make money and maintain services, I just feel it's not a very honest one. Can't really say why. Compare it to other particular games where the developer charges you money for 'keys' to unlock content that's already on the bloody disc.
but what if you want to keep on palying a game? i still throw in my old copy of kotor every once ina while, with this i cant do that without paying during the break while i fool around with a new game. i dont want to spend sixty and only get a few months, but i do want to experience an mmo. im at a terrible crossroads i know lol. this may not be the genre for me but ill be damned if i dont try